14.9.06

Hay Hay! It´s Tomato tarte tatin day!

Blog events...try one and you´re hooked. Just what I needed, another set of deadlines. But then again, such fun.

Which brings us to Hay Hay! It´s Donna Day #5, hosted by Tami of Running with Tweezers, who has come up with the great idea of savoury tarts.

I´m not a finicky cook. My signature dishes rely on punchy flavour and a working knowledge of ethnic shops around town. Not for me the exquisite little tarts with nuts in the pastry, the delicately aligned asparagus, the birds and flowers made with cutoffs. Sometimes I make a quiche, because J loves it so, but mostly my favourite tart is this, the Ximenita 30 minute special, also known as Roast Tomato Tarte Tatin.

If you don´t have roast tomatoes always at the ready (I´m looking smug right now), the cooking time is a little longer, but not much. Just start off by halving plum tomatoes, sprinking them with salt and sugar, drizzling them with olive oil and blasting them in a hot oven for 20 minutes. You can also use cherry tomatoes, or slices of salad ones.

You mix the flour, salt, and baking powder, and rub the butter in with your fingers. This takes a minute, I promise. Then add the milk, and mix it with a wooden spoon. You´ll have a plastery, stringy, not very good-looking dough. (This is biscuit dough, and one day I will blog long and hard about it, because it´s been a major culinary breaktrhough for me)Take a cake pan (mine´s an Ikea non-stick 23 cm. metal one). Drizzle a little oil, sprinkle a little sugar. Arrange the tomatoes however you like. I´m not giving precise quantities, because it´s a pretty slapdash operation, and anything goes, but I´d say about a 8.

Grate some hard cheese over. I use manchego. Roll out the pastry, and tuck it over the tomatoes. If there´s leftover dough, make little balls and bake them alongside. They´re awsome.

Put in the oven, and wait about 20 minutes. The top should be golden, and sound hollow when tapped. I´m never sure, and usually break off a piece to try it. It´s an upside down tart, so it´s ok.

Wait five minutes, and turn it over. This is a risky business, but there´s no chance of bad caramel burns as with real tarte tatin, so it´s not too bad.

The result is crispy crust, a dense crumb, gooey cheese, and tomatoes that are intense, sweet, sour, dark red, maybe a little caramelized. I love it.

Eat warm, with some green salad. Leftovers can be reheated in the oven next day.

Oh, my goodness, this sounds FABULOUS! I can't wait to make it. I need to hurry because local tomatoes won't be at the market much longer here -- but this seems like a fitting tribute to the end of tomato season.

Mmmm Ximena, reading this sure made my mouthwater! Will save it now to make with my own tomatoes in a few months.Like JenJen, I love how you baked every last scrap of dough. I'd be lining up just for some of them.